A review by wyrmgirl
The Trial: A New Translation Based on the Restored Text by Franz Kafka

2.0

Two and a half stars, I think. This book is a little tricky because I think that thematically, it is quite significant and interesting, but reading it was a real slog. At one point, I remember thinking to myself that Kafka must have spent three really horrible hours at Service Ontario or the equivalent of before writing this. The main character, K., is hard to like let alone empathize with too much, and (although I realize it is an old book), the portrayal of women throughout the novel is pretty subpar. Plot-wise, not a ton happens, and what does happen can be portrayed in a confusing and hard-to-follow manner. Although I believe that Kafka did this deliberately, it nevertheless excludes The Trial from ever being considered an easy or beach read. I am hopeful that the main benefit in having read this classic will make itself more apparent in my day-to-day life after having finished it, namely in higher levels of scrutiny about bureaucracy, power imbalances, transparency, perception, and the legal system in general. One can only hope that it'll make me a little smarter, and even more that the slog was not for naught. I'd be unlikely to recommend this book to anyone but a serious philosopher or a serious cynic, I think.